Finding Text
Federal Program Name: Student Financial Assistance Cluster - Federal Work Study, Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant, and PELL Grants
CFDA No: 84.033, 84.007, and 84.063
Federal Agency: U.S. Department of Education
Criteria or specific requirement: The College is required to report enrollment information under the Pell grant program via the National Student Loan Data System (NSLDS). The administration of the Title IV programs depends heavily on the accuracy and timeliness of the enrollment information reported. The College must review, update, and verify student enrollment statuses, program information, and effective dates that appear on the Enrollment Reporting Roster file or on the Enrollment Maintenance page of the NSLDS Professional Access (NSLDSFAP) website. The College is responsible for timely reporting of this information to NSLDS.
Condition: During the testing of students who graduated or withdrew from the College, we found that in a sample of 20 students, 14 students were not reported correctly or timely to NSLDS making up 28 exceptions.
Questioned costs: None
Context: Of 20 graduated and withdrawn students tested, 14 were not reported to the NSLDS as timely or correctly.
Cause: Lack of oversight by College personnel.
Effect: The College was not in compliance with the enrollment requirements as prescribed by the Title IV program.
Auditor’s Recommendation: We recommend that procedures be developed to review the roster files received from the NSLDS to ensure correct student information is being reported with each roster file.
Management’s Response: Management will be implementing remediation steps to ensure that enrollment information is accurate in the NSLDS. The College’s Information Technology (IT) department will work with the Registrar in creating a process where graduates who are not originally reported as graduated can be updated to graduated status in National Student Clearinghouse (NSC)’s website. This may include making a graduates’ only submission to NSC to update those graduates whose degrees were conferred after the original submission. Also, the Student Affairs department will now review submission data and give approval prior to submission to NSC. To assist in this review, the IT department will develop a data validation report that lists students who have completed a certificate and/or degree and are no longer attending.